Hearts of Hope Verified listing

Having begun as a group of volunteers in 1997, who were volunteering at the Johannesburg Children's home and saw the need for caring for HIV positive children, Hearts of Hope was officially established in 2003 with the purchasing of a home for 6 orphaned and abandoned children, providing 24-hour personal care in a Christian home environment with the help of a dedicated housemother In faith, we purchased a house in Wendywood, Johannesburg, and began our Hearts of Hope journey. We now have four properties in the Wendywood area, where 52 children live at one time

Since 2003, over 288 children have left Hearts of Hope to be reunited with biological family or adopted. When one child leaves for their new 'forever home', another one finds a home at Hearts of Hope.

We are determined we wouldn’t merely provide a roof over children’s heads. Instead, Hearts of Hope provides a home and family for each child until he or she can find a forever family of their own. We aim to give them back their childhood.

Our Vision:

All vulnerable children in need of care and protection, are given a turning point opportunity of personal and individualised nurturing care in a safe and stable home environment, that enables them to have a childhood, thrive, and be educated, building their resilience and life skills within a forever home and towards an independent future.

Our Mission:

To provide a transitional solution for orphaned and vulnerable children enabling the reunification back to their own biological families or the adoption into new forever families.

Our desired goals:

·        Orphaned and vulnerable children provided with the opportunity to experience a childhood within a nurturing and safe environment.

·        Improved access to ECD, primary and senior schooling; in addition to tertiary opportunities

·        Improved access to nutritional, remedial and medical interventions

·        Independent, well socialised children who are equipped with the key life-skills needed when they leave Hearts of Hope, either to new forms of care or as young adults.

Our activities

·        52 babies and children: each home has up to 7 children and a house mother, where the children are safe, emotionally secure and ‘given back’ their childhood

·        ECD: the on-site Early Childhood Development Education Centre is responsible for early intervention programmes providing the vital foundational skills needed for the children when they later attend off-site primary and secondary schools

·        Remedial and developmental interventions: each child has access to therapeutic care in the forms of play therapy, extra lessons and homework assistance, psychological care

·        Medical, nutritional and health care: partnerships with medical professionals and tracking of the ‘Road to Health’ card ensures that the health of each child is monitored and ameliorated where necessary